Infonetics Research released Rich Communications Suite Services, Devices, and Subscribers, a market forecast and analysis report.

Rich Communication Suite (RCS) aims to unify the communications experience by tying together presence, voice, chat, and multimedia services over IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) networks, first for mobile networks and later extending to fixed-line capabilities.

ANALYST NOTE
"As commercial launches of Rich Communication Suite services begin in 2010, positive progress is being made in achieving interoperability among operators, a critical first step. Western Europe leads the way, with the first commercial deployments of RCS occurring in 2010 in France, led by Bouygues Télécom, Orange, and SFR. Asia Pacific also will see pockets of RCS commercial trials and deployments in 2010, starting in Japan and South Korea," notes Diane Myers, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS.

Still, the lack of RCS-compliant handsets has been a critical barrier and there is work to be done toward operators launching additional enhanced applications and services over RCS. When and if these challenges are overcome, service providers that offer RCS services will be able to tap into new and increased revenue streams as their subscribers ramp up their voice, data, and messaging usage, Myers adds.